1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a paper, an image forming system including the image forming apparatus, and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing is carried out by forming a toner image on a photoreceptor provided in an image forming unit based on image data acquired by reading from a document reading apparatus, for example, transferring the toner image to a paper fed from a tray, and fixing the toner image in an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, and a multi-function machine. Moreover, an image forming apparatus including a finisher, thereby enabling post processing such as stapling and punching is proposed.
The image forming and the post-processing are carried out based on set contents such as job setting on the image forming apparatus. The job setting can be carried out by an operator via an operation/display unit.
Moreover, image forming systems for enabling a remote operation of an image forming apparatus by using an external apparatus connected via a communication network for the sake of utility for a user are proposed (refer to Japanese Patent No. 3042655 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-340259).
According to Japanese Patent No. 3042655, a display same as that on a display unit of the image forming apparatus, and a display imitating operation keys are displayed on a display unit of a workstation for the remote operation.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-340259, in an image forming system where multiple image forming apparatuses can be remotely operated via a network, a display of which image forming apparatus main body is being carried out can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner.
By the way, for example, after papers are sufficiently supplied, and the job setting is carried out, the user may not always stay in front of the machine in the image forming apparatus. Thus, for example, if there is an alarm for a jam or a toner supply, a large-scale alarm display such as an alarm using an entire screen of a display unit, or a blinking display is carried out so that a user tends to recognize the alarm even if the user is remote from the image forming apparatus.
Moreover, the image forming system enabling the remote operation of the image forming apparatus via the communication network so that the user can carry out a monitoring without staying in front of the apparatus also preferably carries out an alarm display upon a jam.
For example, the jam or the like requires an actual operation in front of an image forming apparatus main body, a reset of the alarm (jam reset) is required before the actual print operation, and thus the large scale alarm is necessary. However, the alarm display such as that for the jam which can be reset only in front of the image forming apparatus main body is not often necessary (however, the generation of jam needs to be recognized), and the large-scale alarm which prevents an operation such as remote generation of a job poses a problem in the image forming system for the remote operation via the network.